I’m a bit behind with my reviewing, as I was making myself work on my review of “Invisible Women” for Shiny New Books (what more can you say about this much-reviewed book? I will share what I’ve said when it’s out) before I did the books I’ve finished. I ended April with two books on the go, which I’d started on my travels to London last weekend, and I was a bit under the weather this weekend, hence picked some easy reads off the TBR. So be prepared for an influx.

In other influx news, on Friday and then unexpectedly early on Saturday, I have received two books from the publishers, one on a subscription model that I was more than happy to lend a helping hand to, one from the publisher from a selection I expressed interest in earlier in the year! See below for a pic of these absolute beauties that I am privileged to have in the house.

Simon Armitage – “Gig”

(10 April 2018, Oxfam Books)

I bought this on the day I started using my new hairdresser, so precious memories and all that!

A book of loosely connected anecdotes about his own poetry ‘gigs’, music gigs he’s been to and his forays into band membership, imagined and real, and fandom/subculture membership (it’s hard to be a punk in a northern village with a scathing dad, it turns out). Funny and poignant as usual, we get a lot about his mum and dad (I love the long piece about the family’s amateur dramatic tradition) and his wife and daughter. Good to see his Iceland trip referenced and there are some great comparisons, including this on Mark E. Smith, who he says is like

the owner of a family-run furniture manufacturer in provincial northern England, bullying his staff and mocking his customers.

There’s some birdwatching (he’s the one in the back of the car with the silly comments and biscuits) and family jokes (Alan Bennett mode is a corker!) and I laughed out loud at his list of band names and why they got rejected. A great read.

So a while ago I joined an Unbound campaign for a book about the mental health benefits of birdwatching (and being in nature in general). Unbound works like the old subscription model, or crowdfunding, where you pay in advance to help a book get published, and there are various levels (I chose to receive one hardback book of “Bird Therapy” and have my name in the list of supporters, which pleased me mightily when I spotted myself, but you could also have a special edition or various birdwatching treats for more of a pledge). A quote from the publisher’s page:

In this groundbreaking book filled with practical advice, Joe explains the impact that birdwatching had on his life, and invites the reader to discover these extraordinary effects for themselves.

You can buy it on Amazon from next month and I will try to review it very soon. I found Unbound easy to work with: one book I was supporting failed and I had a refund I could apply easily to anything else.

Bird Therapy and Futurekind books

“Futurekind” by Robert Phillips, kindly sent to me by Thames & Hudson and out next week, is a wonderful, beautifully illustrated book about community-led design projects. I’ll let the blurb do the talking:

Structured into eight areas of application, from healthcare to education, this book showcases over sixty projects – not the kind you see in glossy magazines or online, but the ones that have made a genuine difference to communities and lives around the world. Rather than being client-driven, as commercial design often is, each project here is the result of designers who reach out, communities who get involved and the technologies that helping people to realize ideas together. From a playground-powered water pump in South Africa to a DIY budget cellphone, each of these groundbreaking projects is presented through fascinating and life-affirming stories, diagrams that reveal the mechanisms and motivations behind each design approach, and photography that celebrates the humanity of the endeavour.

It looks absolutely fascinating and I can’t wait to get stuck in.

I’m currently reading “The Sea, The Sea” by Iris Murdoch, for what must be the fifth time at least, and I’m still drawn in, excited, by that first page. What are you reading that’s exciting you?

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Oooh, nice incomings and the Armitage sounds grand. I’ve supported an Unbound too, on neglected women philosophers, and like you found the whole experience very easy. I’m looking forward to my book. Just finished another Big Russian (though at 400 pages a lot shorter than the Dostoevsky) and am now reading some Very Thin Books to compensate…. ;D

I’ve got one on the go for “100 Voices” which is pieces by women around the centenary of the vote being given to (some of) us but that’s not wholly funded yet. Have you not read this Armitage? Happy to add it it your pile!

Sounds like a really good read. I always like the family memoir bits in books like that. I have pledged money to an Unbound project, it’s probably bad that I can’t remember what level I did, I think it might have been a donation, or perhaps I will get an ebook at some point. I think the Unbound people do great work getting these projects off the ground.

This was great. I just have this one and 100 voices which is modern women’s writing but doesn’t seem to have got far enough along https://unbound.com/books/100-voices/. I like to get a book-book out of them but am very selective about the ones I support. It does seem to be a good service for books that haven’t found a traditional way to publication.

My husband supported Bird Therapy too 🙂 Now he just has to find time to read it! I recently funded an Unbound campaign for an anthology of women’s nature writing but have lost track of when it’s supposed to be completed. This year, I hope.

I didn’t know about that Armitage book but, having enjoyed Walking Home and Walking Away, think I’d like it too.

Oh lovely – hope he enjoys it, too! I find it easy to lose track of Unbound things esp if they’re working up to their total. I think you would enjoy the Armitage although it’s less of a whole narrative than those. I think he’s in the running for the Poet Laureateship and I hope he gets it!

I have trouble fitting in as much reading as I want to do, although typically the end of marathon training gives me good resting therefore reading time! I like fiction and have a few reviews to post of some novels from the weekend.